


Heart 2.0

by ShadowBlazer



Series: Heart [6]
Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Happy Ending, Love, Post-Canon, Relationship(s), Romance, Weddings, post-Star ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 09:55:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30137793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowBlazer/pseuds/ShadowBlazer
Summary: V and Judy get married while with the Aldecados, but Judy realizes she still has questions about V’s fate. They talk it out.A continuation of the epilogue from Heart.
Relationships: Judy Alvarez/V
Series: Heart [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2076372
Comments: 14
Kudos: 81





	Heart 2.0

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Halifax](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Halifax/gifts).



> I decided to challenge myself and intentionally write fluff, which I don't normally do. The question to myself was whether I could write positive emotions with the same complexity as I do negative ones, and I'm fairly happy with how the results turned out. Hope you guys enjoy it too.
> 
> Thank you to Halifax for all of her beta-reading and feedback to help sharpen this story.

Judy sits alone in a dusty tent, head in her hands, an old wedding dress from years ago on her frame. Excited voices rose and fell around her like a chorus, separated through the canvas to sound like a continuous murmur in the background—a separation between her and the world, leaving Judy alone with her doubts and fears. 

Between her fingertips, she spots the remnants of a fine coating of dust and sand on the tent floor, despite her repeated attempt to brush them out. Her eyes follow their trail to the worn backpack and plastic suitcase situated closeby, mementos V and Judy brought from Night City when they departed—an echo of what feels like a lifetime ago, and she remembers why she’s by herself right now.

Judy is going to marry V today.

How terrifying, like she doesn’t have enough air to breathe.

From outside the tent flaps, Panam’s shout startles her. “Hey, you ready? That dress from Carol hemmed okay?”

Judy scrambles to sit up. “Yeah, fits better now.” She exhales, trying to still her shaking hands on her knees. “Didn’t expect her to have one.”

“Or be the marrying type,” Panam snorts. “But from what I heard, Carol lost her girl back in the war but kept the dress. Didn’t think her the sentimental type.”

Judy nods, admiring the intricate pattern of the lace along the hem, the tiny stitching of a pair of initials that she knows isn’t Carol’s. She smoothes her hands down the ivory crepe fabric. “What happened to her?”

“Which one? Carol, as you can see, became who she is now, and…” Panam’s voice softens. “It took her a long time to come back emotionally, Saul said. Her body returned, but she wasn’t there. Her girl died near the end of the Unification war—a handful of days before the treaty was signed. She...went out fighting. That’s what Carol always said, though she wished they hadn’t enlisted together. But that was who they were.” 

Judy inhales sharply, breath rattling against her ribs. “Just give me a moment.”

Panam pauses. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just nerves, you know?” Judy barks out a laugh. “Not like I’ll be marrying a dying woman anytime soon.” 

“Oh, shit. I made your nerves worse, didn’t I? Okay, this is now a V problem. I’m going to grab her.” There’s a note of uneasiness in Panam’s voice as her footsteps fade away, and Judy is left to her own thoughts, trying to stop them from spinning.

She knows that V is searching for a solution, but she starts asking herself what if she fails? What would Judy do? Could she even survive losing V like she lost Evelyn and Tom? What if this is what breaks her when V—

“Hey, Judy.” V’s voice calls out to her, soft in that raspy husk of hers. “I know it’s bad luck to see the bride before the wedding, but Panam said you needed to talk.”

Judy huffs, curling her arms around her. “Can’t see how ours could get worse.” She quiets for a moment. “C’mon in.”

A hand parts the tent flaps, and V steps through in her finest and cleanest leathers, black and sweltering in the desert sun. She glances up at Judy and stops, mouth gaping slightly.

Judy smirks. “Gonna get in or just catch flies over there?”

V jerks upright and quickly closes the entrance behind her. “You look...beautiful.”

“Sure don’t feel it.” Judy ducks her head, trying to hide the heat rising in her face from V’s compliment. “I feel like…”

“An atom? A speck upon the water?” V steps forward and gathers Judy’s hands. “Do you feel scared? Alone?” When Judy nods, tightness in her throat, V leans in. “Tell ya the truth: I’m fucking terrified too.” 

Judy glances up, noticing the brightness in V’s eyes. “How come?”

“‘Cause it’s a big deal? ‘Cause not everyone gets to marry you, and I’ll kill anyone else who tries?” V rests their intertwined fingers on Judy’s knees. “What’s on your mind?”

Judy hesitates before she hangs her head. “Y’know, Carol lost her own fiancée in the last war.”

Nodding, V furrows her brows. “I heard. And here I thought she was grumpy and standoffish for no reason.” She stares at her for a while before her eyes widen, and she places her hands on Judy’s shoulders. “Are you thinking about the biochip? What it’ll mean for us?”

“Yeah.” Looking into the V’s face, Judy looks away. She goes quiet before she whispers, “Even if I marry you, you might still die soon.”

V opens her mouth before pausing. “You just realized that now?”

“I’m slow. Deal with it,” Judy pulls away and crosses her arms, looking down. “I just...I don’t know what I’d do once you…”

“Hey.” V’s hand cups her cheek, and Judy relaxes instinctively. She’s amazed at how easily V can calm her, bring her down so quickly. “I’m not saying that this is definitely the end for me, but even if it was, you’re going to survive. Carry me around like a bullet on your heart. You might fall in love again. You might tell the story across the bed from your new wife—“ Judy feels her stomach reel at the thought. “—and you’ll think of me from time to time. You may feel like you want to die, but you are strong. You’ll go on.”

“Don’t think there’ll be anyone after you.” Judy reaches up to cover V’s hand. “How will I when you’re gone?”

V exhales, glancing off to the side, looking thoughtful. “I asked the same thing when Jackie died.” She turns back to Judy, gently tapping her on the chest. “And I decided that I will honour his dream, his life, his legacy. He said he was going to be the top hermano, but I don’t think that’s what he really wanted. Like me, he wanted to know that he mattered.” She meets Judy’s eyes. “And he did. I still think about him every day.” 

“So, what are you saying? I think about you, and life is okay afterwards?”

V shakes her head. “Carry on my dreams, carry on my values, carry on the things that were important to me. It’s only when you forget those things that I really die.” 

“Fuck, V.” Judy wipes at her eyes. “This is some heavy shit.”

V shrugs. “Kind of goes with getting into a relationship with someone who has a ticking time bomb in their head.”

Judy exhales and reaches out to cup V’s cheek, warmth and safety beneath her palm. “I meant it when I said I would love you to the end of my life.”

“I know you did.” V takes her hand and kisses her knuckles. “Losing someone is always part of the risk with love, but I don’t think we can’t live another way. We need people, even if fate takes them away far too soon.” She straightens up. “The question is do you have what it takes to try again?”

“I do.” Judy studies the glow in V’s eyes, the lines of her face. “I really do.”

“Good.” V nods, smiling nervously. “Cause I was getting scared you were going to call everything off, and that would have been awkward to tell the clan.”

Judy sniffs and laughs. “My mascara is probably wrecked.”

“Doesn’t matter.” V holds out a hand to pull her up. “Going to marry you either way.”

They head out of the tent and out to the centre of the camp by the stones ringing the campfire. Panam and Mitch wait at the firepit while the Aldecados sit in front of them among the shrubs and grass, a cleared path cutting through the middle of them. 

Panam spots them first and walks up to Judy while V brushes past, moving towards Mitch to stand with him. Offering Judy her arm, Panam smiles reassuringly. “I know you don’t have any family here, but I figured that I can fill in the gap.”

Judy wraps her arm around hers, feeling something hot and bright swell in her chest, prickling in her eyes. “Thought you were V’s best woman.”

“I’ve got enough in me to be the best woman for both of you.” Panam smirks, walking Judy down the makeshift aisle as the Aldecaldos whoop and throw handfuls of purple and yellow petals from the desert flowers they found nearby, showering them in splashes of colour. “And besides, I sure as hell wasn’t going to let Mitch do it, so he gets to officiate.”

Judy snorts, burying her face in the shoulder away from Panam. “Thanks. I mean it.”

Panam waves it off.

Judy doesn’t have the words to describe how she feels trekking across desert ground in the thunder of the clan’s applause and cheers. The sunshine casts a golden hue on V’s skin, making her look young and beautiful like a goddess, like she might live forever. Though Judy knows that is not the case.

She steps towards her, each pause lasting a lifetime--the phases of her life behind each blink from Laguna Bend to the Moxes with all of them leading straight to V. A small child gets up from the ground near his mother, stumbling towards her with a pink flower held outstretched in his chubby hand. Judy delicately takes it from him, feeling something precious and happy at the smile spreading across his face as he sits down, and this time, it’s his grandmother leaning forward with a lily of bright orange. Beside her, it’s a young father depositing a desert dandelion into Judy’s palm, and so it goes on, people reaching over the aisle to hand her something they picked that morning for this moment.

Judy feels something expanding in her chest, a tingling warmth through her arms and legs. She wishes she could repay back all the Aldecados for their kindness and their welcome as her hands fill with flowers of all types—poppies, verbanas, sunflowers. In the distance, green, bountiful brush lines the landscape all the way to the bottom of a plateau under a vivid blue sky, and Judy’s awed at the sight of it, filled with an euphoria that seems to radiate out of her skin. She wishes she could repeat this moment walking down the aisle towards V forever.

When she finally reaches her, bunches of wildflowers between her palms, V brushes the back of her wrist, eyes already shining with a wet gleam. She grins as if she never expects to stop. “Glad we talked.”

“Me too.” Judy squeezes V’s hand when she tries to pull back. 

Mitch clears his throat, opening up a worn and leathery bible, faded golden lettering across its front. “V said you were Catholic.”

“Non-practicing,” Judy quickly adds.

Mitch nods, closing the book. “Guess we’ll have to improvise then.” He looks at V. “Vows?”

“Really? Me first?” V inhales, a shaky breath to stay her trembling hands. “Okay. Panam helped me write a speech and everything, but I’ve completely forgotten it after standing here and looking at you.” She clears her throat. “So, here it goes.

“I…” She glances up then at the ground before inhaling, drawing her shoulders up. “Judy, I promise to encourage your compassion, your drive to improve people’s lives for the better, because that is what makes you unique and wonderful. I promise to nurture your dreams, your desire of finding a place to belong, to have the family you never had, because through them all, your soul shines. I promise to help shoulder our challenges, to do my share and more, for there is nothing we cannot face if we stand together.”

V blinks rapidly, nodding and hunching her shoulders slightly before she forces them to relax. She continues while Judy’s heartbeat pounds in her ears, “I promise to be your partner in all things, not possessing you nor controlling you, but working with you as a team, as two halves of a whole. Finally, I promise to you perfect love and perfect trust. One lifetime with you could never be enough, and I will fight two lifetimes over just so I could spend them with you. These are my promises to you, my equal in all things.” 

She takes Judy’s hands, squeezing tighter than she probably intended. “I would rather spend the rest of my time with you than have a long life without.” She smiles—shy, happy with vulnerable eyes that has Judy falling more in love than she imagined possible. “As long as you never give up on me, I will never give up on you.”

She pauses, waiting, as the Aldecaldos cheer. The clan smiles and weeps before they turn their attention to Judy, leaning forward to hear her response.

Judy’s never been good with words, the ones she prepared catching in her throat, lodged along with her voice as she gazes at this sun-kissed woman with such unguarded eyes—one that would be hers forever even when she’s gone. She leans in and grabs V by the jaw and kisses her so deeply, her past lives could feel it. “I promise to love you always to the end of your days and mine. I promise never to forget you or your heart, the things you do for people, the things you still do in the wake of your life. I promise to remind you everyday that you mattered, V, and that you mattered to me. Anywhere you go, let me follow too. That’s all I ask of you.” 

At V’s struck expression, Judy bites back a grin and steals another kiss, softer and slower with whoops echoing all around them as V takes her senses back and buries her fingers in Judy’s hair. Someone clears their throat repeatedly, and the two pull away, dazed and glancing to the side.

Mitch points to them. “I now pronounce you wife and wife. Uh...feel free to keep doing what you’re doing.” 

V laughs before Judy pulls her in for another kiss, the whistling and cheering of the Aldecaldos behind them so deafening that Judy can only feel V’s sharp inhale beneath her palms. Then, she starts crying, and V also joins in and so does Mitch. Panam rolls her eyes, but Judy catches her sniffling and wiping at her face discreetly.

Panam clears her throat. “All right, so. We got a surprise for you.”

She leads them over to where the convoys wait as the Aldecaldos jump up and finish taking down the camp. Outside of the sleeping area, Judy notes that a steel-grey jeep stands alone with empty cans tied with strings to its bumper. Panam nods to it. “This was a custom Saul said they used to do a hundred years ago. Thought it might be good.”

V furrows her brows. “Think you just wanted me to drive something with tin cans on it.” 

“That too.” She opens the car door, gesturing for one of them to enter.

Judy motions for V to take the wheel. “Meant my vows. I’ll follow you wherever you go.” 

V stares before grinning. She kisses Judy’s cheek before sliding in with Judy climbing in after her, and Panam heading into her Warhorse. Panam signals for them to wait, and V grabs the wheel, watching the rest of the Aldecado trickle in, tucking in tents and supplies into the convoy vehicles while a bunch of them mount the scouting motorcycles. When everyone settles into or onto a vehicle, Panam turns and signals for V to go, pointing to a destination in the distance, and V slams her foot against the pedal.

V hollers as they drive into the distance, sun behind them, wind ripping back her hair and sheer joy on her face, the cans creating a cacophony of noise behind them. The Aldecados race and cheer by their sides, bikes overtaking one another and trading the lead spot fluidly. Mitch waves from beside them before Carol shoots past him, smirking, and Cassidy tips his hat once he brushes by her. The jeep rattles forward, Judy reaching down to squeeze V’s hand as if she would never let go.

After a few hours, the sun goes down, and the Aldecaldos set up a makeshift camp on the edge of a huge canyon of maze-like cliffs that promise the entrance to Arizona. The children of the camp follow curiously after Judy’s wildflowers until she gives them away, sending them scattering and giggling with each holding a flower of their own. When Judy and V are finally alone, they settle down on a patch of grass within a stone’s throw of the bonfire behind them, a carved space of silence of their own settling between them while the group sang and broke out a cache of beer to share among them. The scent of something fragrant lingers in the air behind them—something Judy has only ever smelled in the desert that feels distinctively like home. 

She gazes up at the constellations in the sky. “You never see stars like this in the city.”

“Too many man-made lights to see any real ones.” V shifts closer, thigh brushing against Judy’s, and there’s a level of comfort that Judy has never felt in any other relationship. Like they could sit here all day in silence, and they could still never get enough of each other. “Always felt uneasy when I couldn’t see them in Night City like I could out here.” 

“Night City…” Judy glances over, studying the profile of her new wife, the gentle eyes and determined set of her mouth. “What happened back there? Thought you...gave up when you called me that one time on the rooftop. When you were trying to say goodbye.”

“Ah.” V scrunches up her nose. “I almost did.” 

“And why didn’t you?” Judy leans into her shoulder--solid, warm. “What made you come back?”

V looks contemplative, gaze growing distant and thoughtful. Sad. “I already died once. All I did was change my outlook. I may only have six months more, but if I keep thinking about what could have been or stressing out about the end, I’ll never be happy.” She reaches over to lace her fingers between Judy’s. “All we have are the moments right in front of us. We aren’t promised another day. We aren’t entitled to more than we currently have. If I wake up in the morning next to you, that’s more than reason enough to be grateful.” She smiles. “I realize now it’s always been the small things that mattered—the time with family, love.”

Judy hums, looking at their interlaced fingers before she clears her throat, something caught in it. “You got wise.”

“Better have. Died twice.” V exhales. “Thing is that you can’t have hope without a struggle, without trying. People who throw their hands up and let failure consume them, they have no hope, because they’re not doing anything to allow them to believe there is any.” She glances over. “I can’t guarantee that I’ll make it...that I’ll find a solution before the end, but I promise I’ll be fighting every fucking second until the end. I won’t give up. I’ll go out on my feet, Jude, not on my knees. That’s the least I can do for you.”

Judy pulls their joined hands up to her face, brushing a kiss against the back of V’s. “You were always brave. Even with your emotions. S’what drew me to you.”

“Not my suave charm and good looks?” V teases.

“Dime a dozen in Night City if you consider how frequent bodysculpting is.” Judy shakes her head. “It was your brainwave patterns when you came out of that braindance with the guy who got snuffed.”

V pauses. “My...brainwaves attracted you?”

“What they meant did.” Judy sits back, looking her in the face. “You came outta that thing looking shocked, horrified. You felt his death. More than that, you felt for him. I told you that your cortisol levels were spiked, but you also showed that the alpha waves over your sensorimotor cortical areas were suppressed when you saw him in pain.” At V’s blank look, Judy smiles. “You felt empathy when he died. That’s rare in Night City and even rarer in a merc. Can’t fake that. You didn’t belong there, and neither did I.”

V huffs. “I’m glad my literal brain attracted you.”

“Yes, but your heart made me stay.” Judy leans in to kiss her cheeks. “Mrs. Judy Alvarez.”

V smiles. “Valerie Alvarez has a nice ring to it. Newest addition to the family, yeah?” She gently nudges with her shoulder before a frown crosses her face. “Remember when we talked about Carol and her fiancée? How she lost her? Forgot to mention to you that Carol was the one who told me to set a wedding date sooner than later.” She studies Judy’s eyes. “For all that was stolen from her, I don’t think she regretted one moment of it.” 

“Neither do I.” Judy leans up, spotting the distinct triple stars of Orion’s Belt, the bright glimmer of Venus. “While we’re talking about recalling stuff, ‘member what you said about finding a home? I’ve been thinking of a vision of my own. How about you and me, wrinkled and old and still so in love that we disgust Panam’s great-grandchildren?”

V laughs, a bright and sweet sound. “To quote someone, it’s one I like a lot.”

“Mmm-hmm, we best get on our way to accomplishing it then,” Judy chuckles. She waits a moment in the warmth around them before she leans in to whisper. “Want to know something? I still haven’t told my grandparents I got married yet.”

“I figured, considering how much you cried about telling her about the lack of wedding rings.” V nods. “Do you need help?”

“Please.” Judy squeezes V’s hand and looks away, heat on her cheeks. “What would I do without my wife?”

**Author's Note:**

> I don't usually write fluff, bit when I do, I write a wedding. Thanks for reading!


End file.
